Cartels are so pervasive in America that were are currently typing on a recreational forum devoted to one of their products.

LOL.

please marijuana is hardly a cartel product. they may sell some bags of weed but doesnt make everything related to marijuana instantly linked to drug cartels. Marijuana didnt start with them, it wont end with them. they are just a bunch of low life scum bags who will sell anything they can get people to buy. its like theguys at the beech they dont give a fuck if they are selling sombreros or tshirts or fake jewelry. take that up a few notches with automatic rifles and you have the cartels. they sell protection to whoever will pay them. they kidnap and sell men/women into slavery also sell children into slavery. if the kid is "pretty" enough they might get sent to be an abused porno star for the rest of their life. they sell assassinations. they sell anything that anyone will buy so saying that we are here on yahooka discussing weed because its one of the cartels products is just retarded.

It is believed they were originally trained at the
military School of the Americas in the United States and by other
foreign specialists of the United States, France and Israel. They were trained
in rapid deployment, aerial assaults, marksmanship, ambushes, small-group
tactics, intelligence collection, counter-surveillance techniques, prisoner
rescues and sophisticated communications.

Cardenas Guillen's top recruit, Lieutenant Arturo Guzmán Decena, brought
with him approximately 30 other GAFE deserters enticed by salaries
substantially higher than those paid by the Mexican government. The role of
Los Zetas was soon expanded, collecting debts, securing cocaine supply and
trafficking routes known as plazas(zones) and executing its foes, often with
grotesque savagery.

In response to such aggressive efforts on the part of the Zetas to defend
and control its smuggling corridors to the United States, the rival Sinaloa
Cartel established its own heavily armed enforcer gang, Los Negros. The
group operates in a similar fashion to the Zetas, but with less complexity.

Upon the arrest of Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cardenas Guillen in 2003, Los Zetas
negotiated a collaboration pact with the Gulf Cartel and the Beltrán-Leyva
Cartel to engage in their own drug shipments.[5][13][14]

In February 2010, Los Zetas (and its ally, the Betran Leyva Cartel) engaged
in a violent turf war against its former employer/partner, the Gulf Cartel, in
the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas,[15][16] turning some border towns
to "ghost towns".[17] It was reported that a Gulf Cartel member killed a top
Zeta lieutenant named Victor Mendoza. The Zetas demanded that the Gulf
cartel turn over the killer. However the Gulf Cartel refused and an all-out war
has broken out between the two gangs

Over the last few years, the Zetas have carried out a series of violent
strikes. Below is an incomplete list of some of the more horrific crimes
perpetrated.

In February 2004, a large group of their commandos broke into a prison in
Michoacán Mexico and freed 25 fellow Zetas.[33]

In June 2005, they killed Alejandro Coello, police chief of Nuevo Laredo, only
six hours after he was sworn into office.[33]

In March 2006 they forced the resignation of Coello’s replacement by
threatening to kill more and more people if he would not step down. The
police chief finally broke after personally discovering three charred bodies on
the side of a city street.[33]

In February 2007 several Zetas dressed in army uniforms, massacring five
police officers and two administrative assistants and injuring countless others
in the town of Acapulco.[33]

In April 2007, Los Zetas murdered Chilpancingo’s police chief while he was
eating in a restaurant with his wife and family.[33]

Also in April 2007 the Zetas murdered the police chief in Veracruz by
assaulting his house with mortars, killing his wife and four kids in the process.[
33]

In May 2007 they kidnapped, tortured and murdered Jacinto Granada, a
Mexican Infantry captain.[33]

In June 2007 Los Zetas robbed several major casinos in Nuevo Leon,
Veracruz, Coahuila, and Baja California.[33]

In the first eleven months of 2008, Los Zetas were directly responsible for
the deaths of 5,300 people. This number includes soldiers, their own
operatives, civilians, and rival drug traffickers.

A grainy mobile phone video has cast doubt on a US border patrol agent's
claim that he shot dead a 14-year-old Mexican boy after he was threatened
by a group of illegal immigrants.

The video, taken from a nearby pedestrian bridge shows three people running
from the US bank of the river, towards Mexico, chased by border patrol
agents. One of them is caught by an agent who drags him along the ground,
keeping one arm outstretched towards Mexico with what looks like a gun in
his hand.

The sound of shots follows and a voice is heard shouting: "He's hit him, the
idiot, he's hit him." Another voice adds: "It's because they are throwing stones."

The video contradicts an account by FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons who
previously said: "This agent, who had the second subject detained on the
ground, gave verbal commands to the remaining subjects to stop and retreat.
However, the subjects surrounded the agent and continued to throw rocks at
him. The agent then fired his service weapon several times, striking one
subject who later died."

Simmons also told the Associated Press that Mexican soldiers arrived at the
scene soon after the shooting and pointed their guns at the border patrol
agents while bystanders shouted insults and threw rocks and firecrackers
their way, forcing them to withdraw. The Mexican army denied they had been
present at the scene, but the federal police confirmed they had "secured"
the area after the incident.